If re-elected, we’ll go further than our current target and bring superfast broadband to every single corner of Scotland.

We’ll also increase our investment in the workforce of the future – with a target of reaching 30,000 Modern Apprentices by 2020, up from 25,500 at present.

We’re building a culture of innovation in Scotland – we’re committing more than £345 million in 2016-17 to support innovation and the Scotland CAN DO Innovation Forum is working in collaboration with industry leaders and academia to develop specific actions to raise ambition and create stronger connections between key innovators.

Our focus on internationalism is paying off, and this year we’re establishing Innovation and Investment Hubs in London, Brussels and Dublin to promote Scottish business and strengthen international relationships.

And according to analysis by Ernst & Young Scotland has consolidated its position as the second biggest UK destination after London for foreign direct investment – supporting thousands of jobs.

One of the simplest, but most important, things we’ve done to support business is to ensure that our business rates regime is competitive and supports firms across the country.

Our Small Business Bonus Scheme is helping nearly 100,000 firms across Scotland – and we will continue it in the next parliament.

But we also need to make more fundamental changes to meet Scotland’s potential.

That’s why we plan to revolutionise childcare provision so that more parents can enter the job market, and why we’ll use new powers over employability to support unemployed Scots find and stay in work.

An SNP government if re-elected for a historic third term would build on the progress made since 2007 and continue to put Scottish business at the heart of our work building a prosperous, fairer Scotland.

LABOUR

Kezia Dugdale MSP, Scottish Labour leader

In May Scottish Labour will put forward our most pro-enterprise manifesto ever.

Our approach to business and enterprise will be based around four key pillars: connectivity, productivity, simplicity and certainty.

Productivity as one of the great missed opportunities of the last decade, and the SNP Government have to accept responsibility for that.

In that time the productivity gap between Scotland and our major competitors has reached as high as 25 per cent.

A recent report from the Scottish Council for Development and Industry stated that increasing Scotland’s total factor productivity by even 0.1 per cent per year could boost GDP by 1.3 per cent, and in turn, employment by 11,000 and tax revenue by £400m a year.

As someone who wants to see business in Scotland flourish to create jobs and deliver world class public services tackling Scotland’s productivity problem needs to be a priority.

With the new powers coming to Scotland developing economic growth is now a key issue in Scottish Parliament elections.

We have access to tax powers and borrowing powers to go alongside pre-existing responsibilities over education, housing, and infrastructure.

I firmly believe that our most important, and neglected economic policy is education.

I’ve put cutting the attainment gap in our schools at the heart of my leadership of Scottish Labour.

Cutting the gap between the richest and the rest isn’t just a social and moral imperative – it’s the pressing economic question of our time.

Ensuring that our young people have the skills they need to access the jobs of tomorrow, so Scotland can be a home to the industries of the future.

That’s why given the choice between using our powers or cutting into our nation’s future we choose to use our powers.

That choice means investing in our young people so they have the skills they need to grasp the jobs of the future in the industries of tomorrow.

Developing a stronger, fairer economy is now firmly the responsibility of Holyrood. That means bold policy and clear choices from Scotland’s political parties.

CONSERVATIVES

Murdo Fraser, MSP

The Scottish Conservatives always have, and always will, be the party of enterprise.

We believe it is the job of government to create the most favourable environment possible for businesses – big and small – to operate.

A major part of that is getting the tax regime right.

We welcome the fact that the UK Government is constantly seeking to bring down corporation tax, and think the Scottish Government should be taking their lead from this approach.

Business rates should also be low, yet too many firms have seen their bill soar in the nine years of SNP Government.

If it becomes too expensive to operate a business, not only will that drive firms out of action altogether, but it risks creating a culture where setting up an enterprise isn’t encouraged, and isn’t attractive to those who might otherwise have considered it.

The business community across Scotland expressed its strong view that proposed SNP changes to empty property relief would represent ‘an unprecedented, punishing blow to Scottish industry’.

That will of course hamper the ability of the Scottish economy to grow, and attract inward investment.

It would not create the vibrant, dynamic economy the Scottish Conservatives want to see north of the border.

But it’s not just tax for businesses that will help the economy; moving to a low tax, low welfare and high wage society will boost jobs too.

If Labour or the SNP have their way, and make taxes for people in Scotland higher than those elsewhere in the UK, we will risk hanging up a sign at the border which reads: ‘Closed for business’.

Since the referendum, we’ve already seen unemployment rates in Scotland increase while the rest of the UK makes progress on that front.

Going into this election, as the government that’s been in charge for nearly a decade, the SNP will need to explain to voters why it has allowed this to be the case.

Perhaps uncertainty surrounding another referendum – which the SNP keeps threatening – is one of those reasons.

That’s why a strong Scottish Conservative party – the only ones who will stand by the two million people who voted No – is so crucial in the next Scottish Parliament term.”

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

Willie Rennie MSP, Scottish Liberal Democrats leader

Scotland has always been a country of innovators and there can be no barriers in the way of our ambitions for businesses, which should strive high to play their part in the global economy.

Businesses need to know central government won’t stand in their way as they grow but they also need a helping hand through what have been very challenging recent years.

Scottish Liberal Democrats will provide Scottish businesses with skilled, healthy and motivated potential employees, a competitive business tax system, and modern transport and communications infrastructure.

A recent UK Commission for Employment and Skills survey showed 19 per cent of Scottish employers can’t get the skills they need – higher than anywhere else in Britain.

That’s why Scottish Liberal Democrats are calling for a penny on income tax to raise £475 million to invest in nurseries, schools and colleges.

Scottish businesses need a pool of experienced and skilled people they can draw on for their workforce.

Another important role we play is calling for the hurdles Scottish businesses face to be removed. On business taxation, we believe in a competitive system.

We support a full-scale review of business rates that would consider the fundamentals of the system, like the penalties businesses face when they improve their premises or install renewable energy machinery.

We also want to take action on the failure of business rates to recognise the challenges of establishing an operation which doesn’t see an immediate return on investment.

We will also extend super-fast broadband and modern mobile phone coverage to businesses in all parts of Scotland.

In this digital age, infrastructure in much of the country just isn’t up to scratch. Geographic barriers must be broken down so businesses can be run from anywhere.

Businesses also need a government that will work to keep us in the EU.

The future for Scottish businesses in bright, as is our vision for the country and the people who live and work in it.

We want to equip them with the resources they need, cut the red tape and make sure every person has the skills and ambition to reach their potential.